External Storage for Tablets

By Brian Cook

Tablets are wonderful devices. They can even be thought of as some of the most coveted devices of the last few years. Don’t get me wrong….Smartphones have really taken on a new life in past few years, but the tablet is still something newer to the consumer space. The tablet is something that combines the portability of the smartphone with the power and functionality of a Netbook. Often, when I say tablet, the product that comes to mind is Apple’s iPad.

Close to three years after the iPad’s launch and it’s now in its fourth generation. The iPad is still the number one line of tablet being sold. If it will stay that way in a year, it’s anyone’s’ guess. For now, it’s still the leader of the pack. One of the largest issues with the iPad is the amount of built in storage. You can’t expand it internally, but what about externally?

3 External Storage Devices for iPad

This is a breakdown of some of the external storage solutions that have been created for the iPad, what features each has to offer at the present time and the average cost for each unit.

1. MAXELL AIRSTASH

It may just look like an average USB thumb drive, but it does quite a lot more! It can connect wirelessly to your iPad and provide external storage from 2 gigabytes and up to 2 terabytes, which can become somewhat expensive. The AirStash is actually an SD card reader that also houses a wireless connection foryour iPad. All you have to do is stick in your SD card and connect your iPad to its wifi peer-to-peer network. The best thing about this device is its size. You can have the AirStash in your pocket, be sharing a movie, television show or pictures with your friend across the room and no one is the wiser. This little guy will set you back about at least $120 with a 16GB SDHC card. You can upgrade the size of card you use very easily. SDHC cards can get expensive quickly, but just remember this small rule of thumb, try to pay as close to $1 per GB as you can when purchasing an SDHC card.

2. G-Technology G-Connect

The G-Connect is very pro sharing. The biggest draw to this device for me is the 500 GB storage space. The drive is very portable and very easy to set up. You can have up to 5 devices connected to it at a time and the transfer speed is great! The only drawback on this piece of gear is that there’s no internal power source. So, you need to have either a computer’s USB port or wall outlet available to provide power. For around $150 on Amazon.com, the G-Connect is by far the best buy per GB. With the amount of storage, I think it’s a fair trade off for having to have this device plugged into an external power source.

3. KINGSTON WI-DRIVE 32 GB

The Wi-Drive is about the size of an iPhone or iPod Touch and is a solid state media device. This means no internal moving parts, which is great if you are constantly on the go. I know that 32GB of storage for about $75 really breaks the $1 per GB rule, but you still may want to consider this due to its other wonderful features. The Wi-Drive can be setup to create a wireless bridge for access to your files without giving up your local wifi internet connection. You can even copy all of your DRM protected content from iTunes to this drive and play it on any of your iDevices.

The next time you think you need more storage for your iPad, don't sell it. Instead keep your current tablet and buy yourself some external storage.

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